Buzz Acceleratorhttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com
Using social media to generate word-of-mouth for your businessSun, 03 Dec 2017 22:23:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-buzz-favicon-32x32.pngBuzz Acceleratorhttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com
3232Why Facebook Advertising?https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/why-facebook-advertising/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/why-facebook-advertising/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2016 23:41:08 +0000http://www.buzzaccelerator.com/?p=2286Are you a business owner or marketer looking to increase traffic to your website? Do you want more targeted Facebook fans and brand exposure? Perhaps you’ve dabbled in Facebook advertising, but couldn’t get it to “work” for your business? If you want to know more about Facebook PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, you should first know some […]

Are you a business owner or marketer looking to increase traffic to your website?

Do you want more targeted Facebook fans and brand exposure?

Perhaps you’ve dabbled in Facebook advertising, but couldn’t get it to “work” for your business?

If you want to know more about Facebook PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, you should first know some common costly mistakes which lead to failure:

Targeting mistakes

Not sure who you are targeting? Trying to target a local area with 2 million users? (HINT – that’s too many!) Demographic targeting matters and the more specific you get, the better your results will be. You could potentially waste a lot of money sending ads to the wrong people.

Ad Burnout

Facebook users get tired of seeing the same ad over and over again. And what’s worse is that once click-throughs decline advertisers will start paying higher fees. This alone can destroy the effectiveness of a campaign.

Lack of testing

How are your odds at Vegas? That’s about how effective your Facebook ads will be if you don’t test them. The image you use might not be remarkable or the headline might not be clear. By having multiple variations of your ad you’ll instantly be able to see which ad is getting the best response. Without testing you are simply guessing.

These are the most common mistakes advertisers make when using Facebook Ad Campaigns. If you’ve ever hired someone in the past to run Facebook Ads for you and got dismal results, they probably were making one or more of these common costly mistakes. They were basically running what we like to call Lazy Facebook Ad Campaigns.

Facebook Ad Campaigns run correctly, on the other hand, will bring you:

Increased traffic

More fans and

Brand exposure

The reason is simple.

With Facebook Ads you can achieve laser-like targeting like nowhere else.

Facebook advertising is unique in that it has a lot of data about their users and allows business to target specific demographics based on that data. You can target broad demographics like male vs. female or people ages 20-30, but the real power of Facebook advertising comes from what people “like”.

You can target your competitors, you can target people who not only like motorcycles but who like specific motorcycles such as Harleys. You can target women who just got engaged, workplaces or those celebrating a birthday. This niche demographic data is where Facebook advertising excels. Other forms of advertising rely mostly on what your audience is searching for. Facebook Advertising campaigns primarily rely on who your audience is.

Not only will you reach the RIGHT people in your advertising campaigns, you will reach them at a lower rate than other pay per click advertising campaigns.

Buzz Accelerator works with you to find the right audience for targeting and with our ongoing monthly Facebook Ad campaign management service, you’ll reach your goals AND gain a competitive edge.

Why Choose Buzz Accelerator for your Facebook Ad Campaigns?

You are good at what you do and we are good at what we do. We are on Facebook everyday. Not to look at status updates and chat with our friends, but to manage ads and create effective Facebook pages for businesses just like yours. We can keep up with the necessary refreshing, testing, and creation of ad variations because that’s what we do. In the long run it saves you time and money because we get better performance by knowing and avoiding the pitfalls of running ad campaigns.

In a nutshell:

• We know how to properly use Facebook demographics so your ads reach the right audience

• We apply lessons learned from managing other campaigns to yours

• We monitor ads closely to ensure they are performing well

• We refresh ads regularly to avoid ad burnout

• We are familiar with Facebook’s ad policies, so we have a high ad approval rate

• We have been using Facebook ads since they started offering them to pages back in 2009

If you have yet to see Facebook ads work for your business, it’s time to get help from the experts.

But wait! Before you get started…

Is Facebook Advertising right for you?

Buzz Accelerator’s Facebook Ad campaign management service isideal for businesses who have a clearly defined demographic for their product or service and are willing to invest $750+ / month in Facebook Advertising.

Our happy clients:

Trust our expertise to help them generate paid traffic
Know how to convert paid traffic into sales
Use Facebook advertising for branding, exposure, leads, and promotion of special offers
Have a good tracking system in place

Are you ready to boost your brand?

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/why-facebook-advertising/feed/0Show & Tell: Success with Facebookhttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/case-studies/show-tell-success-with-facebook/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/case-studies/show-tell-success-with-facebook/#respondWed, 21 Sep 2016 05:03:02 +0000http://www.buzzaccelerator.com/?p=2080Since it’s been a little while since my last blog post, I thought I’d share with you how FB has been helping me get greater exposure for both my clients and my own businesses. Lots of website traffic Right now 53% of all website traffic for one of my “business is booming” clients is coming […]

Since it’s been a little while since my last blog post, I thought I’d share with you how FB has been helping me get greater exposure for both my clients and my own businesses.

Lots of website traffic

Right now 53% of all website traffic for one of my “business is booming” clients is coming from FB through either status updates or FB ads. And although the quality of the leads (based on how much visitors interact with the site) is slightly better when obtained by organic searches, the difference isn’t all that much. Search engine optimization is still one of the best places to concentrate your marketing efforts, but when it comes to causatively creating traffic for your website, social media is a great place to get things going. And the cost per click for FB ads is still a great value, especially when compared to Google’s Adwords.

Now, I must admit that this strategy won’t work for every business. From my own experience it’s best when it is a business to consumer business (B2C) rather than a business to business (B2B) because it’s all about targeting individuals and their interests. If you are in an industry that people are passionate about, like motorcycle riding, or gluten-free then your chances for succeeding increase exponentially.

Speaking of motorcycle riding, if you know me then you know I ride and am very passionate about it. In fact, I created my own website just for lady riders at BikerGirlBling.com. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s what it looks like.

I created the logo and branding, the website, and set up all the social sites. Fun stuff! These lady riders are passionate about motorcycle riding and are very much into social media. Almost all of the traffic for this site comes from social media, including FB, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. When you see the statistics for what works you just gotta run with it. And I do!

The client I mentioned above who now gets 53% of all his web traffic from FB is a B2C model but there isn’t any passion about it at all. It’s an air conditioning company and people only think about air conditioning when they need it! However, we’ve been able to come up with some really great performing ad campaigns. My rep at FB even told me it’s performing way above normal. So sometimes just having a clever or interesting campaign can really do wonders, especially if you have an eye-catching graphic. Here’s what one of them looks like. If you live in Southern California and are a homeowner it’s very likely you’ve seen it.Just recently I did a complete makeover on his website and so far the response has been really good. We are getting more people filling out the ‘estimate’ forms than ever before simply by having it moved more towards the top of the page. Check it out…it even has moving clouds at the top! Just go to airtro.com.

“One thing I have noticed is substantially higher website traffic. And that was with mild, rainy weather. The redesign has been a big success, thanks to you. Your hard work has been a real benefit to Air-Tro, Lisa. My sincere appreciation for your skills and creative talent.”

Low Cost

I have run FB campaigns for business to business but they are quite challenging in terms of getting to the right demographic. Not only that, people don’t always use the same email for business that they do for FB so email matching is poor. However, we were still able to get traffic at under a dollar per click. Here’s a couple of the campaigns I ran:

Just as a note, the better your ads perform the lower the cost gets. As a comparison, the Air-Tro ads mentioned previously are averaging 25 cents per click. Now that is a great value!

Do I have to run ads?

Another client of mine just started a podcast on his website at rightthings.com and he’s getting about 1/3 of his traffic from FB posts. He’s not running FB ads at all. But it goes to show that if you have good content—and he does—people will come. Here’s the podcast graphic I did for him.

You may not be aware, but I’ve been managing pages since the very beginning of pages. As soon as FB ads were available I jumped at the opportunity to use them. Certainly it’s been a lot of trial and error with continual changes from FB, but I’ve found it to be a valuable tool in my marketing arsenal.

What about you? Are you using Facebook or FB ads to drive traffic to your website? Initially it does take some work, but once you get it down it can work to bring you more leads and customers.

Let me know if you need help with your FB ad campaigns or even managing your page. If your business is a good fit for Facebook I can even do it for you!

Need help with your FB campaigns?

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/case-studies/show-tell-success-with-facebook/feed/0A sweet-toothed Social Media experience with Buzz Maker Riana Zimmerman of Magnolia Bakeryhttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/a-sweet-toothed-social-media-experience-with-buzz-maker-riana-zimmerman/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/a-sweet-toothed-social-media-experience-with-buzz-maker-riana-zimmerman/#respondTue, 13 Jan 2015 21:48:56 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=1722The latest edition in a series of interviews with businesses having great success using social media. Not the huge brands with tons of money to spend, but ordinary businesses on a budget and with limited resources. We call them the Buzz Makers of Social Media. In this interview Riana Zimmerman, PR and Marketing Manager for Magnolia […]

The latest edition in a series of interviews with businesses having great success using social media. Not the huge brands with tons of money to spend, but ordinary businesses on a budget and with limited resources. We call them the Buzz Makers of Social Media.

In this interview Riana Zimmerman, PR and Marketing Manager for Magnolia Bakery, shares her success with us. Magnolia Bakery is a world renowned bakery famous for classic American baked goods and desserts.

Buzz Accelerator: Tell us about your company and why you got started.

Riana Zimmerman: Magnolia Bakery is a bakery known for its classic American baked goods, vintage decor and warm, inviting atmosphere. I came to Magnolia Bakery to work on digital marketing, social media strategy and public relations initiatives. When I started at Magnolia Bakery in January, we already had a large, highly engaged audience, but it was one of my goals to connect with them more closely by presenting them with the content that they desire.

Buzz Accelerator: How did you develop an interest in Social Media/Facebook, Twitter, Instagram?

Riana Zimmerman: I developed an interest in social media when I was a student at Boston University. Sure, we all had Facebook for years at that point, but this was also the time when Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare all began to pick up in popularity. It was fascinating to me how the student body connected with one another through social media and I took up a strong interest in how businesses could use social media to connect with their audience online.

Buzz Accelerator: Tell us about how Social Media has helped your business.

Riana Zimmerman: Social media has helped Magnolia Bakery in many ways. Firstly, it has helped us grow and engage with our loyal audience. We have fans from all over the world and for them, knowing they can get a taste of Magnolia Bakery, even when they’re not right around the corner from one of our locations, is monumental (and the reason we’ve seen a 450% increase in our Instagram following this year!). Secondly, we’ve been able to use social media to show our fans our wide variety of products. We sell much more than cupcakes and have been able to showcase other products including pies, customized cakes, fresh muffins and more.

Buzz Accelerator: Tells us some specific successes you’ve had with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Riana Zimmerman: I find that Instagram really is our hotspot right now, and we’ve had much success there this year. Our fans like to relate to our images. They might come from miles away to enjoy a classic cupcake. Or, they might live around the corner and want to pick up a muffin and coffee for breakfast on a Saturday morning. We’ve found a lot of success with lifestyle shots of our items, especially classic cupcakes. There are so many different fun ways to photograph cupcakes and it has been fun and exciting to watch our fans appreciate and engage with these images.

Buzz Accelerator: How did you learn about Social Media and/or what training have you done?

Riana Zimmerman: I learned about social media when I was in high school! Facebook was “invite-only” and I was thrilled when I finally received the invite. However my use for social media has evolved much since then. In school and in my internships throughout college, I learned how to use social media for businesses and brands. At my previous role at Hearst Corporation as a social media analyst, I learned first-hand how massive the reach of a Facebook post can be. My freelance work as a digital consultant showed me how an affective content strategy can increase business and attention and keep people engaged, even when they’re not in the store. It’s all very exciting and fun to figure out different ways to meet your customer/audience where he/she wants to be (digitally).

Buzz Accelerator: What are some of the key tools you use to manage your Social Media/Facebook, Twitter, Instagram campaigns.

Riana Zimmerman: We use Facebook Insights, Buffer for Twitter, and Iconosquare for Instagram. I find social media analytics very important because a good content strategy will account for what is working and what isn’t. If only 1% of your fans are engaging with a post, you can understand your audience’s dislikes better. It is also good to use this data as a sample for research when you’re premiering a new product and are curious about what customer response will be.

Buzz Accelerator: Do you use Social Media/Facebook, Twitter, Instagram much in your personal life as well?

Riana Zimmerman: Yes I do. I like Instagram the most because it is obviously the most visually compelling. It’s pretty fascinating to see what others do with that square of space. They can fill it with the most beautiful images. It is very inspiring! I use Facebook to see what my friends and family are up to and I use Twitter for news.

Buzz Accelerator: What are your hobbies and interests?

Riana Zimmerman: I love running and yoga. I am always looking for my next favorite cup of coffee and I stop into at least one new coffee shop a week. I also enjoy indie movies, a delicious Italian meal, and of course, dessert!

Buzz Accelerator: Future plans for using Social Media?

Riana Zimmerman: I will continue to use social media and explore the new platforms that are constantly becoming available to us! It is so important to try new opportunities, as you never know what might be the next perfect fit for your brand.

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/a-sweet-toothed-social-media-experience-with-buzz-maker-riana-zimmerman/feed/010 Social Media Tips for the Holidayshttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/10-social-media-tips-for-the-holidays/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/10-social-media-tips-for-the-holidays/#respondMon, 10 Nov 2014 10:41:59 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=1654 Are you ready for the most social holiday season ever? You may already be in full swing planning out your holiday campaigns, but if not, it’s time to get busy! Why? Because your competition is! If you want to take advantage of social media to drive traffic to your website and increase sales you’ll […]

You may already be in full swing planning out your holiday campaigns, but if not, it’s time to get busy! Why? Because your competition is!

If you want to take advantage of social media to drive traffic to your website and increase sales you’ll want to be thinking of ways to incorporate the holiday season into your social media posts and overall online presence.

More than ever consumers will be influenced by social media to make purchases. Besides, the holidays are simply the best time to reach your audience and grow your business.

Want to know what other marketers are up to this holiday season?

Our holiday infographic takes a look at the biggest social marketing trends this holiday season. Keep reading below for the 10 social media tips.

10 Social Media Tips for the Holidays

As you can see, social media platforms have reached a new level of maturity and will be one of the main tools marketing professionals will rely on during Black Friday and throughout the entire Christmas shopping season.

No matter what type of business you have, here are some tips on how to effectively promote your products and services on social media for the holidays.

Schedule it!
Just as you need to schedule your holiday parties, family gatherings and other social events, planning out your social media is the best way to maximize your results this busy time of year. Plan ahead and create a marketing schedule for these top holidays for online purchases:

Craft posts for the whole holiday season. Start by deciding which dates are most important to your business. For example, you may want to share an upcoming discount one week before Cyber Monday. Then, schedule ad campaigns in advance and have them run at later dates.

Get creative!
Get noticed this season by creating warm, holiday-themed posts that showcase your business. Use high-quality images that are bright, cheerful, and inviting in order to stand out in the social media stream.

Create relevant promotions to drive sales like incentives, discounts, free shipping, limited-time offers or holiday giveaways. And be sure to add a call to action that tells people what to do, such as “shop now” or “sign up today.”

Advertise!
Run Ads on Facebook with special savings off services/products, or even to just wish fans and potential customers a happy holiday (believe me these work wonders).

Get personal!
Show the personal side of your brand. After all, it’s not just about business! Share stories about Thanksgiving and Christmas to get people talking about their own festive habits. You can ask questions like what’s on your Christmas list, or what special dish are you preparing for Thanksgiving. Also, people love sharing their own holiday tips, so do what you can to get them engaged.

Did you know that 70% of online retailers will be shipping products for free this holiday season? Use the hashtag #FREESHIP to offer free shipping for a day or for the season.

Pin it!
If you have a Pinterest account, create a special board with gift ideas, holiday promotions, or even eye-catching Christmas images. Pinterest users are known to spend more money online so it’s a good idea to take advantage of this during the holidays. Even if you are not selling anything, you’ll still increase your reach.

Show you really care!
Show what you are doing in the community by partnering with others and organizing a food drive donation or working with charitable organizations. The season is about being grateful and helping others, so show what you are up to in that regard. Make sure to take photos of your activities and post them so fans see that you care about community issues.

Give ‘em a deal!
Reward fans for their loyalty by offering irresistible discounts. Use coupons, special deals, buy-one-get-one-free type offers, and other promotions to take full advantage of the season.

Share tips!
Give your followers great hints and tips for getting the most out of the holidays…the more relevant to your industry the better. For instance, air conditioning companies can share tips on avoiding the flu and other viruses with an air purifying system. Tasty holiday food and drink recipes could work for almost any business. And interior decorators could offer tips on beautifying your home for the holidays.

Measure it!
If you’re going to invest time and money into your holiday marketing it’s worth measuring your ROI. As you measure your social media campaigns, adjust your strategy to do more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t.

Take good notes for what your most successful actions were so you can implement them for other holidays throughout the upcoming year.

Wrap-up

Hopefully these social media holiday tips will help you on your way to a successful season this year. And if you’d like to share your own tips, we’d love to hear from you!

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/10-social-media-tips-for-the-holidays/feed/0Buzz Maker Jared Poppert of Legendary Whitetails Builds a Community using Social Mediahttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/buzz-maker-jared-poppert-of-legendary-whitetails-builds-a-community-using-social-media/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/buzz-maker-jared-poppert-of-legendary-whitetails-builds-a-community-using-social-media/#respondTue, 14 Oct 2014 20:27:15 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=1501The latest edition in a series of interviews with businesses having great success using social media. Not the huge brands with tons of money to spend, but ordinary businesses on a budget and with limited resources. We call them the Buzz Makers of Social Media. In this interview Jared Poppert, Social Media Manager for Legendary […]

The latest edition in a series of interviews with businesses having great success using social media. Not the huge brands with tons of money to spend, but ordinary businesses on a budget and with limited resources. We call them the Buzz Makers of Social Media.

In this interview Jared Poppert, Social Media Manager for Legendary Whitetails, shares his success with us. Legendary Whitetails offers unique casual apparel, gifts and gear for whitetail hunters and their families through their direct-to-consumer catalog and website.

Buzz Accelerator: Tell us about your company and why you got started.

Jared Poppert: Legendary Whitetails is a family-owned, direct-to-consumer catalog and internet retailer of lifestyle apparel, gifts, and gear for white-tailed deer hunters and their families. The company was founded on one man’s lifelong passion for whitetails. It was founder Larry Huffman’s growing collection of rare storied bucks that created fascination among the whitetail community in the early 1990s. Over the next decade, this assembly of world-class whitetails grew to be the largest collection of authentic white-tailed deer in the world. Fueled by thousands of supporters while traveling across the country with the Legendary Whitetails collection, Larry set out to build a brand that promotes the whitetail community and passion for the hunt.

Buzz Accelerator: How did you develop an interest in Social Media?

Jared Poppert: We saw the potential for Social Media early on and simply established a presence on a couple networks, which has since grown tremendously. With a desire to increase brand awareness, as well as growing our email file, we developed strategies to fulfill our goals. After testing these strategies, we were able to optimize them, and we saw value with continuing our efforts.

Buzz Accelerator: Tell us about how Social Media has helped your business.

Jared Poppert: Social Media not only contributes directly to website traffic and sales, but also assists in customer acquisition, brand awareness, and customer-company interaction. Building a community of like-minded people is very valuable to us and social media allows us to talk with them, not at them.

Buzz Accelerator: Tells us some specific successes you’ve had with Facebook.

Jared Poppert: As we approach 1 Million Likes on our Facebook Page, we have been fortunate enough to have continued success. Over the last 2 years, we have acquired nearly 50,000 new, active emails from Facebook promotions. This Facebook segment now makes up nearly 20% of our house file.

Additionally, Facebook referral traffic has generated up to 10% of all web traffic in certain months, giving our site a nice bump during some slower periods.

Buzz Accelerator: How did you learn about Social Media and what training have you done?

Jared Poppert: Research, Research, Research. Taking educated guesses, testing them, then optimizing based off of results. Seeing what others (and not just our competitors, but any successful pages) are doing. Keeping up with all the changes to several networks is also a challenge but is extremely important. It all seems pretty easy and obvious when giving a “short answer” but can quickly become overwhelming and can lead to “analysis paralysis”. It takes time. This is not something that can be learned in a 101 class and applied universally. Each instance deserves its own solution.

Buzz Accelerator: What are some of the key tools you use to manage your Social Media campaigns.

Buzz Accelerator: Do you use Social Media much in your personal life as well?

Jared Poppert: Yes, from time to time. I would imagine I use it for personal use less than the average young adult, though. I prefer to explore the physical world as much as I can.

Buzz Accelerator: What are your hobbies and interests?

Jared Poppert: Sports, cooking, and family take up most of my free time and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Buzz Accelerator: Future plans for using Social Media?

Jared Poppert: Whatever the Facebook Algorithm says! (Only half kidding…) We will continue setting goals and finding creative ways to achieve them through Social Media. I would be more specific, but I can’t give away all of our secrets… =)

Buzz Accelerator: Thank you so much.

Jared Poppert: It was my pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.

If you are a business have great success with social media and would like to share your story, contact us! We’d love to hear from you.

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/buzz-maker-jared-poppert-of-legendary-whitetails-builds-a-community-using-social-media/feed/0Feeling the Social Media Time Suck? Get Control Over Your Time With These Productivity Toolshttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/social-media/feeling-the-social-media-time-suck-get-control-over-your-time-with-these-productivity-tools/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/social-media/feeling-the-social-media-time-suck-get-control-over-your-time-with-these-productivity-tools/#respondMon, 29 Sep 2014 17:04:13 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=1419Managing social media can be a bit overwhelming. To truly increase your productivity and get better results you need to organize your activities and monitor your time. This minimizes the inevitable dispersal associated with managing social media and allows you to take control of your time. Streamlining your whole work process will help make sure […]

]]>Managing social media can be a bit overwhelming. To truly increase your productivity and get better results you need to organize your activities and monitor your time. This minimizes the inevitable dispersal associated with managing social media and allows you to take control of your time.

Streamlining your whole work process will help make sure you stay on-task, so I’ve put together 3 awesome, easy-to-use tools to achieve just that. Each of these tools help you set priorities and objectives so you can improve productivity and accomplish more with your time.

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/social-media/feeling-the-social-media-time-suck-get-control-over-your-time-with-these-productivity-tools/feed/04 Simple Tweaks To Get More Facebook Shares From Your Blog Postshttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/tutorials/4-simple-tweaks-to-get-more-facebook-shares-from-your-blog-posts/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/tutorials/4-simple-tweaks-to-get-more-facebook-shares-from-your-blog-posts/#respondMon, 08 Sep 2014 08:30:02 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=14604 Simple Tweaks To Get More Facebook Shares From Your Blog Posts If you’re like most small-business owners, you’re eager to find new ways to use Facebook to market your business. And, since Facebook drives more referral traffic than any of the other social media big dogs (you know, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and the rest), […]

If you’re like most small-business owners, you’re eager to find new ways to use Facebook to market your business. And, since Facebook drives more referral traffic than any of the other social media big dogs (you know, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and the rest), you’re on the right track.

The problem is, Facebook marketing can be harder than it looks, and it feels even harder if you’re comparing your results against big-name lifestyle brands like Harley-Davidson and Victoria’s Secret. (What, you mean you don’t have 25,895,188 likes yet?!)

Luckily, there are a few, fairly easy ways you can make your blog more Facebook friendly—and more likely to rack up those delicious Likes we all crave so much.

Optimize the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Content for Your Blog Posts
One of the most basic ways to optimize your blog for the search engines and social media platforms like Facebook is to define key meta content in your posts. Meta content can be thought of as snippets of information (usually referred to as “meta tags”) that work behind the scenes (along with all of the other source code) to help search engines “understand” your post. Not only does setting up meta information for the title tag and the description tag make it easier for search engines to find your blog posts, it can make it easier for people scanning through Facebook newsfeeds to pick your post out of the clutter.

Another nice benefit is that if you set key meta information like that for the title and description tags, Facebook will automatically pull it out when you post your blog link to Facebook. Likewise if someone shares your post: Instead of having to rely on someone else’s fingers to type something in (which few people are motivated enough to do), your blog post will be set and ready for sharing because you will have already baked in that information with your meta tags.

Use Good Visuals That Are Sized Properly
It should come as no surprise that images that are properly sized for Facebook will display better than those that are not. Images that are not the right size or aspect ratio will more likely than not have cut off edges or text, making them less likely to generate interest and engagement. Kinda like this:

Likewise, imagine sharing an awesome infographic with a killer headline on Facebook, and then realizing that headline got cut off because the image wasn’t sized properly. Big bummer, right? Little things like that matter, and they can mean the difference between 2 shares and 200.

So, what’s the right size for Facebook images?
For your blog images to properly appear in the shared link, use a 1.91:1 ratio on your main blog post image. The resulting thumbnail image on Facebook will be 484 x 252 pixels (for desktop newsfeeds).

You should know that if your blog post image isn’t big enough, then it will render as 154 x 154 or 90×90 px. This might be fine for some posts, but go bigger for more impact.

Write Catchy Headlines
Having catchy headlines is just as important as sizing images for Facebook. Catchy, well-crafted headlines can help you generate curiosity, good will, interest and excitement. And, the more you do that, the more likely you are to see your posts shared throughout your social networks.

If you’ve never won a Pulitzer or don’t have hours and hours to spend brainstorming headlines, don’t worry: Even the best writers have more than a few tricks that they use to keep their creative juices flowing. Here are a few tried-and-true headline generating ideas that you can use to create unique, clickable headlines for your Facebook posts:

1. Lead with the numbers. Interesting statistics, facts, and figures often resonate with readers, especially if they’re particularly relevant to your readership. For instance, what do you think people are more likely to read: What it Takes to Get a Raise or What it Takes to Get a $10,000 Raise?

2. Teach with how-to information. If they’re relevant to your readership, how-to articles are always a safe bet because nearly everyone is interested in ways to improve their lives. For instance, How to Keep Your Skin Flawless After 30 is more likely to generate interest than Skin Care After 30.

3. Lead with a list. People love lists. Short lists, long lists, it really doesn’t matter as long as your list is interesting, useful or fun. Examples: 10 Ways to Land Your Dream Job or 5 Ways to Tank Your Interview.

Experiment with Facebook Plugins
If you have a WordPress blog, you’re probably already familiar with how to find and use plugins, but you may not realize that there are plenty of easy-to-use Facebook plugins that you can use to make sharing your blog posts easier for your readers. In fact, there are plugins for just about all of the major social media channels.

The nice thing about using Facebook sharing plugins is that not only do they make it easier for your readers to share your great content, it lets them see how many times your post has been shared. Believe it or not, post popularity can snowball unexpectedly, and the more people that have publically shared or Liked your content, the more likely other people will too.

Whether you’re considering paid or free Facebook plugins, you’ll want to be sure that the plugin you choose matches the look, design and layout of your blog. Sure, you want it to stand out and get noticed, but in a good way, not in a “look what Ugly bumped into on its way to the Butterface Ball” sort of way.

If you’re not sure which plugins to use, you can always choose from Facebook’s official plugins list. Or, there are (literally) hundreds of other social media plugins available from third-party developers.

And, don’t forget to test placement and looks. You’d be surprised how moving share icons from the bottom of a blog post to the side of it can affect share and like rates. The more you experiment with different types of buttons and different phrasing for them, the more likely you are to find the winning combination that works best for your blog.

Take these four simple steps and you’ll be well on your way to creating easy-to-share blog posts that your social network is more likely to read and share. Good luck!

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/tutorials/all-facebook-image-dimensions-timeline-posts-ads-infographic/feed/0Buzz Maker Scott Yablon Rocks the Gluten-Free worldhttps://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/buzz-maker-scott-yablon-rocks-the-gluten-free-world/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/buzz-maker-scott-yablon-rocks-the-gluten-free-world/#respondMon, 28 Jul 2014 19:12:04 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=1172This is the first in a series of interviews with businesses having great success using social media. Not the huge brands with tons of money to spend, but ordinary businesses on a budget and with limited resources. We call them the Buzz Makers of Social Media. In this interview Scott Yablon, the CEO of the Gluten-Free […]

This is the first in a series of interviews with businesses having great success using social media. Not the huge brands with tons of money to spend, but ordinary businesses on a budget and with limited resources. We call them the Buzz Makers of Social Media.

In this interview Scott Yablon, the CEO of the Gluten-Free Resource Directory shares his success with us. Scott’s Gluten-Free Resource Directory is a comprehensive online resource for anyone interested in a gluten-free lifestyle whether due to Celiac disease, non-Celiac gluten sensitivity or even those who believe that a gluten-free diet is a healthier way to eat.

Here’s how he is shaking the gluten-free world with social media.

Buzz Accelerator: How did you develop an interest in using social media for your business?

Scott Yablon: As the owner of the business I was resistant at first to using social media, but, I was open to testing the waters. Wow, was I ever wrong! Facebook in particular has been an amazing way for us to get the word out to people interested in all things gluten-free! In just one year on Facebook, we had 59,000+ fans and our engagement is regularly in excess of 50%. (As of July 28, 2014 the Gluten-Free Resource Directory Facebook page has 161,061 fans). Looking at the Page Ad Data, we are consistently ranked in the leader board rankings in multiple categories.

Buzz Accelerator: What is your social media philosophy?

Scott Yablon: Here again, as CEO, I just didn’t “get” social media initially. I thought it should reflect what I thought was important and again I was wrong! I realized pretty quickly that our philosophy should be to provide content, information, visual images, etc., of what the fans wanted. When we gave fans what THEY wanted, our engagement increased AND our fans grew.

Buzz Accelerator: How important is social media in your business?

Scott Yablon: It has been amazing for us. We can keep in touch everyday with our fans/consumers AND we can help our advertisers as well.

Buzz Accelerator: What benefits are you are seeing from your efforts, particularly with Facebook?

Scott Yablon: Traffic to the Gluten-Free Resource Directory comes from many sources including direct, google, celiac related organizations, bloggers, twitter, pinterest – but Facebook has become a very important source for us.

Buzz Accelerator: How much time do you spend on Facebook marketing?

Scott Yablon: We have one full time person during the day working on our Facebook marketing and we have others that help answer questions that our fans have for us.

Buzz Accelerator: Which social media tools and services do you rely on the most?

Scott Yablon: We use the Facebook Insights all the time as well as google analytics. We have recently looked at some other services but have not determined if paying for them is necessary.

Buzz Accelerator: How are you measuring the effect of Facebook marketing on your business?

Scott Yablon: It is for us, a direct cause and effect. We post information on Facebook and can track the traffic realtime for each post as it hits the Directory. It’s fantastic.

Buzz Accelerator: How do you go about finding your target audience on Facebook?

Scott Yablon: For us it is very easy because of the very specific group of people we are targeting – those interested in “gluten-free”.

Buzz Accelerator: How do you engage your audience on Facebook?

Scott Yablon: Many ways – we post, at a minimum, 25 times a day. Some posts are product related, some are news related, some are funny, some are inspirational…we don’t always have a winner, but again, it’s not what I like – it’s what the fans like. We learn from every post.

Buzz Accelerator: Are you able to monetize your Facebook efforts? How?

Scott Yablon: Indirectly. The traffic coming from Facebook to the Directory drives interest to advertisers and non-advertiser products and that enables us to market the Directory successfully.

Buzz Accelerator: What is your company’s Facebook strategy?

Scott Yablon: Give the fans WHAT THEY WANT. If we do that, we will continue to grow our fan base and maintain a high engagement rate.

Buzz Accelerator: What Facebook tactics have you found to be most effective?

Scott Yablon: LISTEN to the Fans, and POST QUALITY information. Whether it is a chart, graph, link to another site for great information, a recipe or just something tho make them smile…THAT’s what is important. We cover health issues, celiac issues, wellness – but we also want Fans to WANT to come back to our page and Directory, so we try to balance everything we do.

Buzz Accelerator: Please share with us a particularly successful action with Facebook marketing.

Scott Yablon: We asked for help! I know what I don’t know and I wasn’t shy about getting professional help. That got us off to a great start and while I can’t say we are on auto pilot, we have a plan and we execute everyday. Some days are better than others, but we learn from the great posts and we really learn from the ones that bomb.

Buzz Accelerator: What are your future social media plans?

Scott Yablon: We just began venturing into the twitter world – we will continue down that path, carefully. We are expanding a presence on Pinterest and looking at instagram – but I am not convinced these will really be as beneficial as Facebook – – -BUT, I have been wrong before!

If you are a business have great success with social media and would like to share your story, contact us! We’d love to hear from you.

]]>https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/buzz-makers/buzz-maker-scott-yablon-rocks-the-gluten-free-world/feed/0Should You Use Facebook Advertising?https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/should-you-use-facebook-advertising/
https://www.buzzaccelerator.com/facebook/should-you-use-facebook-advertising/#respondFri, 25 Jul 2014 16:51:07 +0000http://buzzaccelerator.com/?p=1379Should You Use Facebook Advertising? Not sure whether advertising on Facebook is right for your business? Well, ask yourself: • Do you want to increase traffic to your website? • Do you want more brand exposure through social media? • Do you want targeted Facebook fans that turn into real revenue? • Did you run […]

Not sure whether advertising on Facebook is right for your business? Well, ask yourself:

• Do you want to increase traffic to your website?
• Do you want more brand exposure through social media?
• Do you want targeted Facebook fans that turn into real revenue?
• Did you run a Facebook PPC (pay-per-click) campaign that failed?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, Facebook may be a viable marketing solution for your brand. Even if you ran a FB campaign that failed, you may still be able to successfully market your business with Facebook. Failing with Facebook isn’t uncommon, and failure is generally due to three costly Facebook marketing mistakes:

Poor Targeting
The better you target your efforts, the better your results are likely to be. And don’t even think about trying to target a local area with “only” one million users. That’s just too many. Instead, focus your effort on a smaller base that you can more effectively target and you’re more likely to see better results.

Poor Ad Rotation
When Facebook users see the same ads over and over, they stop clicking. And once those click-through rates drop, advertisers start paying higher fees. Keeping your Facebook campaign effective means keeping it fresh.

Poor Testing
Don’t test properly—or worse, don’t test at all—and you’ll have no idea what works or why. If you’re not ready to play Russian roulette with your Facebook PPC campaigns, testing key ad elements will set you up for long-term success.

If your last Facebook ad campaign was a bust, any one of these reasons could be why. Basically, trying to run a lazy Facebook ad campaign usually doesn’t work very well and just ends up resulting in a lot of wasted effort, time and money.

Run your ad campaign on Facebook the right way, however, and you’re likely to see real results, including increases in traffic, fans and brand exposure, all of which can all mean more real, qualified leads.

Why is Facebook Advertising So Effective?
A properly run Facebook campaign can be incredibly effective because it allows you to hone in on a target audience like few other platforms. Instead of relying on a “spray and pray” strategy that’s rarely effective, a targeted Facebook campaign incorporates valuable user data that allows you to aim your efforts directly at specific demographics.

For instance, you can target broard demographics based on gender or age, or you can target hyper-specific niche demographic data, like people who “like” a particular brand of product. You can even target people who are experiencing a particular life event, like buying a home or having a baby.

With this laser-like control and focus, we can create Facebook campaigns that get your ads not just in front of people, but in front of the RIGHT people. That means lower pay-per-click and higher click-through rates for you.

Buzz Accelerator & Your Facebook Campaign
Not to sound glib, but our Facebook advertising is effective because we know how to use it for maximum effect. We are on Facebook every day managing ads, creating Facebook pages, seeing what works, and seeing what doesn’t. Our years of Facebook experience mean we know how to avoid pitfalls that less experienced Facebook marketers just don’t see coming.

Choose Buzz Accelerator for your next Facebook PPC effort and you can count on us to: